28 EASY GUIDE TO MESMERISM
in order that he (Saul) might learn from the seer the
whereabouts of his father's asses.
Soothsaying, obsession, trance, visions, and ins-
piration were all accepted facts among these people.
The evil and the good depended on the source.
When Ahab, King of Israel, wished to know if he
should be successful in war and take Ramoth in
Gilead, he assembled his prophets to the number of
four hundred. This was considered wrong,—as was
also the action of Saul, seeking to know his ultimate
destiny and that of his kingdom from the spirit of
Samuel. Right or wrong, it is never doubted in the
sacred record that Samuel did come back and what
he predicted did take place. With the Hebrews,
Jehovah not only spoke by prophet, revealed His
wishes through the seer, but He communicated with
man during dreams and in the visions of the night,
to warm "man of the evil he doeth, and to instruct
him on the way he should know."
" Healing by the laying on of the hands was
common among the Jews, and was practised by the
Founder of Christianity and His immediate followers
with marvellous results. ''Many were astonished that
such mighty works were wrought by His hands'7
<Mark vi, 2). "Lay hands upon the sick, and they
shall recover," (Mark xvi. 18)'. "The Lord granted
signs and wonders to be done by their hands" (Acts
xiv. 3). As illustrative of what I wish to point out
in the light of modern science—held in consistently
by professing Christians—Naainan, if cured, was
cured by imagination or suggestion, while the cures
of Christ and the apostles are placed in the category
of effects which had no occult basis other than in the
""dominant idea" of the "operator" and the "expect-
ancy" of the subject.
MESMERISM AMONG THE GREEKS.
The Greeks derived most of their customs from
India and Egypt. Medicine with them was a species
of priestcraft the mysteries of which the initiated
could not reveal to the profane without sacrilege.